France’s national public prosecutor’s office (Pnat) announced the opening of a legal investigation in a statement, describing Abdallah Ahmed-Osman as a “terrorist”.
“The first investigation attempts to demonstrate that he acted alone, without being commanded by a terrorist organisation,” said Pnat, saying that it will demand provisional detention for the accused.
Two other Sudanese refugees, one living in the same household and the other presumed to be close to the alleged attacker, were arrested following the attack. However, they were released shortly afterwards without charge.
Abdallah Ahmed-Osman did not remember what happened during Saturday's attack, according to a source close to the enquiry, cited by the AFP news agency.
Franceinfo reported that the alleged attacker told the authorities that he felt “ill at ease”, “spied on” and that he was not coping with the coronavirus lockdown.
Pnat said that searches of the man’s property revealed “manuscripts” with a religious connotation in which he complained about living in a country of “disbelievers”.
The knife rampage in broad daylight shocked the town of Romans-sur-Isère with French President Emmanuel Macron describing it as “an odious act”.
Witnesses told local radio station France Bleu Drome Ardeche that he shouted, "God is greatest” in Arabic as he stabbed his victims.
The prosecutor’s office said he was found on his knees praying when the security forces came for him. A member of the police union said the alleged assailant called on police to kill him as they took him into custody.
A tobacco shop was the scene of the first attack before the suspect went into a butcher’s shop and seized a knife, attacking more people outside a bakery.
Five people were injured in the rampage, according to French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, who visited the scene of the attack.
The suspect had secured refugee status in France in 2017 and was not known to the security services in France or Europe, according to Pnat.
France is on its third week of a Covid-19 lockdown with people ordered to remain at home and only essential businesses open.
